Neighbor effects on adoption of conservation practices: cases of grass filter systems and injecting manure

Animal feeding operations are significant nonpoint source polluters for water resources in the USA, through leaching of nutrients applied as manure or chemical fertilizers. Voluntary adoption of nutrient management practices, such as grass filter systems and injecting manure into soil, has been promoted to minimize the nutrient leaching from livestock operations. Previous studies that analyzed the adoption of conservation practices faced difficulties in explaining the adoption of such practices using the variables primarily identified to explain the adoption of profit-oriented technologies. The objective of this study is to analyze the social aspect of the adoption of conservation practices. We specifically analyzed the neighbor effect on the adoption of grass filter systems and injecting manure into soil. We found that farmers who have a neighbor using a grass filter system were more likely to adopt grass filters than farmers who did not have such a neighbor. The explanatory power of the regression model doubled when the neighbor effect was included. Hence, programs and policies to promote the adoption of conservation practices should take into account the social capital aspect of the neighbor effect.